Wastewater Valuing

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Some products reaching wastewater flows are more easy to transform into energy, fertilisers, etc. than others.

Sometimes those products - e.g. detergents - are more expensive than products difficult to treat (e.g. micropollutants).

In countries lacking sanitation, the new generation wastewater treatment plants generating by-products are keys to attracting investors.

Do you have products or recommendations for import or production licenses to enable wastewater treatment plants to valorise wastewater resources? 

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6 Answers


  1. Dear Valerie,

    Please, be ​contact  ​for more ​information via ​email: nikita.​chikin@​kaukointernational​.​com   ​    ​

    You will get ​answer for your ​questions from ​Finland! ​

  2. Dear Valerie Issumo 

    Very interesting question

    1. The anaerobic digestion produced large mass of bio gas which is also used as power generation.
    2. The bio fuel produced during anaerobic digestion of the waste are also used as an energy saving.

     

    1. Sludge digested through anaerobic and anaerobic processes have distinctly different characteristics and opportunities for resource recovery are specific to each process.
    2.  Mass balances for nitrogen in the anaerobic digestion process show a high concentration of dissolved ammonia. The feasibility of struvite precipitation by addition of phosphate and magnesium compounds is evaluated through batch reaction using anaerobic sludge filtrate.
    3. Aerobic sludge contains most of the nutrient resources in the solid phase, ready for recovery if handled properly. Phosphorus release is a potential concern and specific phosphorus release rates are evaluated for a municipal scale aerobic digester.
    4. Co-digestion with other organic waste streams can improve this recovery, as well as increase biogas generation, coupled with the implementation of some really smart established thermal hydrolysis type of pre-digestion will probably give the best result.
    5. Wastewater which contains a high amount of phosphorus and nitrogen would be a good source of struvite.  Struvite is a phosphate fertilizer, although it contains a significant amount of nitrogen and magnesium, and it is an effective alternative source of rock phosphate to maintain the agricultural production system
    6. Production of slow release crystal fertilizer from wastewaters through struvite crystallization.
    7. Urine in the ecosystem causes  eutrophication  or algae blooms, which suffocates fish and kills aquatic ecosystems.  Urine  is so effective at helping algae grow because it is rich in  nitrogen ,  potassium , and  phosphorus ; these are the three main ingredients found in commercially produced  fertilisers .  Struvite  produced from  urine  can be applied to fields just like any other  fertiliser . In a simple granulation drum, the powder can be transformed into granules. In granular form, a  fertiliser  is easier to apply and does not cake in moist environments.  Struvite  performs comparably to  diammonium phosphate  ( DAP )  fertiliser .

     

     

    1 Comment

    1. Good day, thank you Prem. Technologies and markets for energy, fertilisers, sand...etc... from wastewater exist so poor populations should be able to benefit the return of their own waste.  Those technologies should increase the return on investment for the wastewater transformation but I am interested to understand your views/experiences about the reasons why there is not more sanitation put in place and disadvantaged population not enabled to benefit the return of their own resources?

  3. Hello, Many thanks, very interesting!

    Bernelle: have you tried flocculant from moringa? do you use your work to the customs clearing agencies or States actors who issue production and import licences to allow or forbid products dammaging the environment/health or difficult to treat? For example in Switzerland phosphate are forbidden for laundry detergent

    1 Comment

    1. I have not considered it, but recently heard of moringa, yes. I have not investigated it. My work is looking at producing e.g. flocculants to improve the treatment, using the same processes that treat the wastewater, to reduce complexity of operations, or without needing to add more units.

      If I understand your second question correctly... Because these products intend to be both produced and used on site, I do not need to worry about the import of the products themselves. I am not involved in the licensing arrangements, but not a fan of licensing or patents in this area. In my opinion the value of the company is its reputation and skill in operating, the networks it holds and the strength of the team - but that's ideological I guess.
      For licensing of the Nereda I think you will need to contact Royal Haskoning - DHV directly.

      I consider wastewaters as they are, as receptacles, and the specific components of the wastewater is specific to the case study investigated. The detergent I was referring to is more for altering surface properties of the wastewater itself, not home user level, but again if a commercial detergent product from wastewater looks promising then the product requirements would be considered for the specific case studies. Being bioproduced properly, I think they would stand a decent chance. 

      Hope this helps?

  4. Hi Valerie, we do research on what we call wastewater biorefineries (WWBR) - http://www.futurewater.uct.ac.za/FW-WWBR. The top five value added products, like Gary already touched on, are energy, phosphate, cellulose, alginic acid and polyhydroxyalkanoates (info gathered from the IWA Resource Recovery group - http://www.iwa-network.org/groups/resource-recovery-from-water-cluster/.

    Our group believes that high value, low volume products like flocculants, industrial enzymes and biopolymers can be produced from wastes, and the remainder can still be committed to nutrients and energy recovery. We recently published a report on this including a range of wastewaters (not just domestic), the report plus appendices are available on that Future Water WWBR weblink.

    I have a strong personal preference for the Nereda system for bioproduction, because of the very fast sludge settling time (aka product recovery) and the improved ability to apply selective pressure to the reactor operating conditions to push bioproduction of the desired product. Other good options are moving bed biofilm reactors and modified rotating bed contactors. We do not have import or production licences, we are research level, but the Nereda system is at pilot scale for alginate and PHA production (Dutch tech)

    Personally I am interested in products from dry sanitation, and a recent presentation outlining potential products can be found here: http://indiebio.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Verster_et_al_29nov17_Peri_Urban_Sanitation_WWBR.pdf

  6. in terms of nutrient recovery from sludge and supernatant/centrate streams arising from digestion and dewatering, there are several technologies being introduced in to the market - the challenge I see is to get the sanitation systems formalised in the countries lacking this, once this is established, maintained and operated accordingly, the nutrient recovery will be relatively simple. BOOT/BOOM type concessions are probably the best option as it relieves the developing country's utilities to find the necessary skills. Co-digestion with other organic waste streams can improve this recovery, as well as increase biogas generation, coupled with the implementation of some really smart established thermal hydrolysis type of pre-digestion will probably give the best result. It is a well documented fact that natural phosphate resources are being depleted.

    1 Comment